Road Trip July 4th
by XxMusicxKelseyxX
Summary: A lot happened on July 4th and a lot did not not. Specifically, one road trip with Archie Andrews and Jughead Jones. Does Betty know her best friends planned to visit her in LA during her internship? Well Archie sure didn't tell her.
1. Chapter 1

By now everyone knew the basics of what happened on July 4th, well, except who did it. But despite the events that would undoubtably change Riverdale forever, there were also events that didn't happen. Events like Jason Blossom's failed attempt at running away from home. Or the Archie Andrews and Jughead Jones road trip that Archie bailed on at the last minute. At this time, Archie had already become fairly distant to Jughead, not noticing the small cracks in his façade over his poor, and then missing, home life. Jughead only really had two friends; Archie Andrews, and Betty Cooper. Betty, however, was in Los Angeles for a summer internship. For that he would not fault her as he would have easily encouraged her to pursue her passion, especially in writing.

But it was lonely. So when he and Arch planned this trip, it was a pretty big deal. Highlight of the summer, really. With this in mind, it's understandable why Jughead Jones the third had become a bit jaded. He didn't even get a reason for the cancel- just "I can't make it, Jug, I'm sorry."

They were going to stop in a bigger city to watch the Independence Day fireworks that night and see what other adventures they could get themselves in to before arriving in LA and praying to god they could find where Betty was working or staying. It had already been half of summer without the third person of their childhood trio, and Jughead would be lying if that wasn't also a part of why he was so mad at the red head.

Which is what made coming back to school after all this so much harder. Without being on speaking terms with Archie, he had decided to distance himself from Betty as well. She, after all, was in love with the boy next door and at the end of the day Jug figured Archie would stop being so oblivious and just make her happy. With them divided, time away with him was time away from Archie and he never wanted that for her.

It came with great pride and sadness to find out Betty had come out and admitted her feelings head on. He didn't really understand these things but he acknowledged that it was a really hard thing to do, and it frustrated him to no end when Archie shot her down. His sacrifice of their friendship had been in vain. Or so he thought, but that friendship was far from severed. Like he slowly started becoming friends with Andrews, Cooper started seeking him out as well; surprisingly by herself. She pulled him back into their weird little _Archie and Friends_ group they had going on, even if he didn't consider the other two, occasionally three, his actual friends.

"I missed you this summer, you know. You always encouraged me to write when all little Archie wanted to do was play," she had absently noted while editing the paper in their own Blue and Gold office.

"Me too, Bets. I'm sorry we never ended up coming to visit you."

She smiled softly. "I never really expected you to. It's a long ways away and isn't a cheap place to go. Only reason we could even send me there was because I had an aunt who lived there." You could tell her mind was racing with memories. He looked her right in the eyes.

"Betty, we were going to visit you. I thought you knew. Archie said he got the addresses for where we needed to go... We were actually planning on leaving the day Jason went missing. July 4th."

Betty gasped. "But that's understandable. With all the investigation going on, it makes sense not to leave town." She was a little disappointed at hearing all this but tried to play it off. She had an amazing time, even if she didn't get to see her friends.

He moved to stand right in front of her, looking her right in the eye, and said "No, Betty. Archie cancelled on me the night before. It had nothing to do with the mystery. I just wanted you to know that I tried to come see you, I really did."

She wasn't sure if she should take a step back and be upset, or step forward into a hug with a friend who cared so much. It hurt to know her friend could just blow them off like that, but she needed Jughead's honesty and sincerity. The latter won one, but she did stifle a cry into his jacket.

"Thank you, Juggy. He didn't even send me an email since the beginning of summer. Is that why you had been avoiding me?"

He blushed and looked ashamed. "Look, Betty, I know you, and I thought I knew him, and I genuinely thought you'd get together eventually, when Archie stopped being a moron. With the two of us not getting along... It just felt easier to not force you to choose sides. I wanted you to unremorsfully be on the side of the guy I genuinely thought would marry you some day. I'm really sorry, Betty, about how wrong I seemed to have been about that, but also for not being there for you as a friend despite all that." She gripped his jacket a little tighter.

"At least we're making up for lost time now," she smiled up at him, "we're here now and I don't need a road trip to see one the most amazing people I have ever met." She gently pressed her index finger on his nose a giggled.

Later that night, the two friends dreamt of a road trip that never was and all of what it could have been. It was potential, like a spark, and without actually happening it left their imagination open to do with it as it pleased. And surprisingly, they both imagined Archie wasn't even there after all, just Juggy and Bets. And some underdeveloped feelings.


	2. Road Trip II Betty

**Road Trip II Betty**

A red haired boy dropped off a black haired boy and mysteriously vanished. He smiled up at her, with his signature crown beanie. "Hey Betty, I made it." She pulled him into a hug.

"I missed you so much, Juggy! You'd love it here. So much writing, it's really an experience, and I'm so glad you're here now." She dragged him around and introduced him to everyone, even though she knew he wouldn't care, and they ended up in her little office. "It's not much, but it's mine."

"It's _Betty Cooper humble,"_ he smirked at her. She swooned. How did she not notice before how cute he was? How his hair was just slightly curley and his beautiful eyes. She showed him her work and while he did suggest a few edits, it was mostly just compliments, causing her to turn a light link. Even the edits were just light suggestions.

All of a sudden they're at Starbucks, a block away from Betty's work, and Jughead laughs because there really is a Starbucks on every corner. Riverdale was so small, they didn't even have one. Betty had a vanilla bean frapp and Jug had a coffee. While he drank it, he kept his gaze on her the whole time.

"I know you're too dark for Disneyland, but did you maybe want to go to Universal Studios tomorrow? We could watch the shortened version of Water World and maybe explore the Wizarding World of Harry Potter." She blushed and looked down at her drink and then up, eyes with hope, at her friend.

He smirked at her. "Sure, Betty, whatever you want. I've never actually been, so it probably had to happen sooner or later. We should do the studio tour thing. It's just too bad they don't have as many classics. So much stuff these days is made just to be popular, not for artistic integrity."

After deciding on this, the two of them walked back to Aunty Cooper's place. Unlike her brother, she was really lax and even suggested Mr Jones sleep on an air mattress in Betty's room. While he was pumping it up, she ran to the closet and brought out a clapperboard and hid it behind her back. When he was finished, she passed it on to him.

"I figured it would go good with all the Drive In stuff." Everything felt surreal for a second, and she felt nervous, but then he took it from her and things felt back to normal.

"Thanks, Betts." He pulled her into a hug. They spent the night watching classic Universal movies from her bed on Jug's laptop which was loaded with cinematics. Always one for a good story. The movies themselves were a blur as they just fell into having a wonderful time.

Before they knew it, they were at the gates, and Betty demanded a picture. He agreed, partly to humour her, and partly as a keepsake. The line for the studio tour was long, but covered in movie trivia that the two soaked up like a sponge. If Betty was being honest, this was probably Jughead's favourite part of the ride and they hadn't even gotten on it yet. That being said, he did enjoy the Bates Motel part. They also went on The Mummy roller coaster, the Jurassic Park ride with the 85 foot drop, saw Water World and wandered aimlessly between the Wizarding World, Springfield, and the rest of the park. Betty liked the Harry Potter place especially. There was something familiar about a group of three friends, two boys and one girl, that comforted her. Maybe it was the way the girl, Hermione, ended up with a boy like Ron instead of some popular boy like Harry while all maintaining happiness. Of course, she frowned when she realized Ron was a red head. The parallels were gone, just like that.

Jughead had his arm around Betty's shoulder as they stopped for burgers.

"People probably think we're dating," Jughead said, "though I've never really cared what other people think of me." She looked up at him and squeezed his hand and leaned in and-

 **Beep beep beep beep**

 _Ugh it was just a dream._ She sat up for just a second, a little disappointed, but from the corner of her eye she could make out a clapperboard with a sticky note in her closet.

"To Jughead"


	3. Road Trip III Jughead

**Road Trip III Jughead**

It started without a hitch. They stopped in Midvale to catch the fireworks and drove on through the night. All the rest of the cities were a blur. Landmarks and quirky facts. If Jughead Jones was any other teenage boy, this would be the highlight of his summer, and in some ways it was, but at this point it was less a trip about some sort of "bro bond" and more about seeing the missing person from their trio. He had admired Betty his whole life and how she put up this façade of being some perfect girl-next-door archetype. She was so much more than that, though. He noticed the cracks, the momentary lapses. It was why he was willing to put up with his flakey friend for the long drive to LA.

Before he knew it, they had arrived. 3 days 14 hours and 12 minutes since they had taken off. It went in a blur but he knew that's how long it had been. He was getting agitated with the ginger driver and ran ahead of him up the stairs to the level he knew Betty was interning on.

He stepped into the room and a smirk instantly graced his lips. With the shuffling of his feat, she made a turn and they were frozen just like that. She had the most beautiful eyes and the few strands of frizzy hair could not detract from her perfect she looked. It wasn't the _Alice Cooper's vision of Betty as perfect_ kind of perfect but one all it's own. One that didn't actually require perfection at all. In that moment his chest clenched and he felt like he could just waltz up to her and pull her face to his. There were no thoughts about Archie or even Betty's feelings for Archie. It was just Jughead looking at the girl who had been secretly filling him with both butterflies and bees much more often then he would ever willingly admit. It had almost always been that way, but it wasn't until this exact moment when he started realizing just what these feelings were. So he did it. He went up and kissed her. It was an experiment to make sure this wasn't a misattribution of his emotions. Those were the one thing he didn't always feel confident in. They melted into each other. All of a sudden they're on a movie set and Betty is smiling up at him. It's some modern _film noir_ which everyone knows he's extremely into. Something feels off, though. There's a gunshot and everything is going blurry.

 _What happened on the Fourth of July? What happened to Jason Blossom?_

And just like that, everything went back to normal in the office and the girl next door looked at him like she was worried, but also that he was her world.

"I've been put in charge of planning a Toni Morrison book release party," _this feels familiar_ , "if you stick around, maybe help me plan it, I'm sure you can meet her. Maybe it will... Inspire you, as an aspiring writer." Her eyes sparkled as she looked at him and her hand found his.

Before he knew it, he was trailing behind her with a large stack of books. With a thump he placed them on the table where the signing would take place at the party.

"They asked me to get some coffee, you know, usual intern stuff. Since you so chivalrously carried the books for me, your drinks on me. Let's go." She pulled his arm and they walked out of the overly large bookstore and down the street to a small hole-in-the-wall coffee shop. It was the kind of place he wanted to find on the traveling part of the roadtrip long forgotten, well before Betty became ever so much more important. She held out a coffee for him.

"Black right?" Of course she knew his order. He suppressed a chuckle at her vanilla milkshake awkwardly placed between coffees in one of the two drink trays she carried. He rolled his eyes and grabbed one from her after downing a sip of his drink. For some reason it didn't taste like anything, just sensation, like the sensation of drinking coffee. He followed the swaying ponytail and prepared to get overcrowded. Normally he avoided being around too many people when he could, but he was here to support Betty, so he would pull through and watch her with a vigilant eye in case she needed him from the safety of the wall.

It was magical, watching how she filled the role of party organizer so effectively, like she was in her element and would probably do this sort of thing for a living one day. She laughed at something someone had said and threw a breathtaking glance his way. Like she felt he belonged there, despite being some weird outsider.

"She's really something, huh wallflower? You should tell her how you feel. Life is a series of moments and if you blink, you'll miss it. Plus, she throws an excellent book release party. Definitely in my top 5, and I mean that as a compliment as I've written a lot of books and they don't usually push it on an intern." Toni chuckled. "So it's either that she's special or I'm just washed up. Don't dignify that with a response." She walked away and then everything went black.

He freaked out. What about the party? The one he shouldn't have been enjoying, but was? _Shit_. _I was dreaming._

He clenched his eyes shut and took deep breaths, hoping to step back into that dream before it was too late.

She was holding him and they were alone. "Thank you thank you thank you for coming! Having you there with me really gave me the confidence to pull it off. This has been the best part of summer, maybe even my life. You're the best, Juggie!" She pulled his face to hers and planted a quick peck on the lips. Kind of a _I'm so happy I could kiss you_ but he noticed that he liked it this time too, as fast as it was. From there on out, he stopped dreaming and was just caught up in a happy daze until his alarm woke him up to get ready before anyone noticed he was not coming from home these days. Thank god even with the friends he now had, nobody seemed to go there looking for him.

It hit him in a calm sort of way as he jogged to Pop's for breakfast, thankful that it was a 24 hour restaurant. _I think I'm in love with Betty Cooper._

 _ **The End?**_


End file.
